Friday, August 7, 2009

Save a Triceratops, Ride a Cowboy

That old Merle Travis* tune is running through your head, and as you drive down a rural Kentucky highway on your way to meet some good friends, it seems pretty accurate: You take a K and an E, an N and a T, a U and a C-K-Y; that spells Kentucky, but it means paradise. The moon is fat and bright, and all around you is the chorus of thousands of insects searching for a choice reproductive partner. Yup, ol' Merle had something there.

The truth, however, is that the Creation Museum, in anticipation of today's visit from a swarm of scientists, decided it might be best to move out its most laughable example of grafting dinosaurs into their young-earth model of natural history. Maybe they were afraid that someone might deface their star attraction. You know, the way they deface our country's star attraction: science. More at PZ Myer's Pharyngula!

UPDATED! Apparently, my guess was wrong:

PZ Myers, Trikerider. via islanddave @ flickr

*I love me some Merle Travis, one of the great country guitarists of all time and a multi-talented dude, but I have to admit a certain gleeful sense of vengeance at using one of his tunes in a post mocking young-earthers... the one thing he's done that really gets under my skin is a song in which he derides evolution by saying something along the lines of "if you believe that monkey story, I'd rather be the monkey than you." Now we're even, Merle.